Mystery Apple

[FB.]

Does this one drop its fruit prematurely?

Not noticeably, but BoB doesn't always misbehave.

[veggiechicken]

I'm sticking with BoB now!! I wish someone else would come along with a suggestion - I may not sleep tonight wondering about it

[FB.]

I'm sticking with BoB now!! I wish someone else would come along with a suggestion - I may not sleep tonight wondering about it

Jeanied managed to slip a few words in edgeways between our chatter:

No apple expert here but they look like the Discovery on the plot next to mine

[veggiechicken]

Yes, I saw Jeanie's contribution. Klefti threw some names into the apple crumble too!
We may have to summon Yummersetter or another apple buff - since I haven't a clue really!

[FB.]

Cut one up for eating for dinner time - it had a mild case of bitter pit.

Just cut another one up - it had a suspicious little clump of wet-sand-like material near the "eye" of the fruit. I did my usual dissection so as to cut off four sides of the apple but leave the core undisturbed.

After finishing eating the four sides of the fruit, I used my knife to cut open the core and, as expected, there was a little maggot living there.

After eating two of these in one day, if anyone wants me tomorrow but can't find me, I'll probably be having a little sit down to read the paper............

[veggiechicken]

I would have thought that you of all people would have cut an apple straight through the core to see what was living there
Hope to see you again tomorrow

[yummersetter]

Its not Beauty of Bath, which is freckled and striped. The tight eye is distinctive - I've never grown or eaten Discovery but these match the pictures. The only thing is, I have an apple that looks like that . . will have a look in daylight at mine.

[Vince G]

Regular apple day here

Park Fruit Farm orchards and farm shop, English apples, apple juice, cider, damsons, cider vinegar, plums.

bit far for you probably, unless you fancy a day by the Essex seaside

[Feral007]

Well it's not a Cox's Orange Pippin! Because it's not riddled with disease

Apart from that I'd also say it's not Pink Lady or Granny Smith.

The only other apples that I really know (from buying them and watching the kids inhale them) are Sundowners and Gala.

[orangepippin]

Being interested in apple characteristics, I think you can apply a logical approach to this using the attribtues that FB has provided:

Ripening time – early/mid August (in Cambridgeshire)
Visual appearance of the fruit, leaves, tree
It is apparently disease-resistant
Likely to be a variety that was popular in gardens in Cambridgeshire 30 years ago

On that basis I reckon it’s Discovery, as it would score highly on all those attributes.

[Llamas]

Umm... Irish Peach? Stab in the dark and really just because is ripens early, has slightly large vigour (so could properly go for it in the right conditions) and it looks like the photos google is showing up. Don't know anything about how popular it was 30 years ago or it's disease resistance.

[FB.]

Umm... Irish Peach? Stab in the dark and really just because is ripens early, has slightly large vigour (so could properly go for it in the right conditions) and it looks like the photos google is showing up. Don't know anything about how popular it was 30 years ago or it's disease resistance.

Irish Peach is also talked-down by many authors and catalogues.
The main grumbles being its early flowering and significant tip-bearing of fruit (hence a rather spreading tree which keeps expanding slowly for most of its life). The fruit will drop off the tree the millisecond that it becomes fully ripe and has a very short shelf-life measured in days, as is common for most earlies (although Discovery lasts a bit longer than most, but still only a couple of weeks).

I find Irish Peach to be trouble-free and not the full-tip-bearer that many make it out to be, but other people don't find it to be as easy. I find its growth rate to be about average, maybe a little less. Most tip-bearing or part-tip-bearing trees get a bit bigger than equal-vigour spur-bearers.
Tip or part-tip bearers are good for lazy gardeners as they will usually continue cropping fairly well without any pruning, although the tree will need plenty of space if it is never pruned because almost all plants will keep getting larger if unpruned (whether apples, hazels, buddleia or any other garden bush/tree).

I think the problem is that where Irish Peach is very common, there are pools of disease adapted to atack it, which reinfect from old trees of that type. Same with ArdCairn Russet, which I also find to be virtually trouble-free, but others (in Ireland) disagree. However, the variety can be found all over Ireland rather like Cox can be found all over England.

A feature of Irish Peach - or at least mine which I don't spray - is that the fruit has a trace of yeasty frosty-whitish-looking coating, and the red colours are closer to maroon rather than orange-red.

I've not seen or heard of anyone with an Irish Peach or ArdCairn Russet within many miles of my location. Most people would probably plant Discovery instead of Irish Peach or BoB.

[yummersetter]

I still think it's Discovery, but the similar apple I have is Red Delicious, on the shady side of the tree - it's flattish, has that clenched bottom and is the kind of name that would sell and sold in the shops.
The spanner in the ID works is the worm in the apple - we could be looking at September rather than August apples, reddened by the incursion.

[orangepippin]

I don't think you could have easily bought a Red Delicious apple tree in the UK 30 years ago, so it would have to be a tree that was grown from a discarded Red Delicious pip - which would explain the size FB reports if nothing else.

[DuncanM]

Did FB ever reveal the answer to this? (assuming that he knew all along?)